John w



J. W. ROSS.

(MbdeL) Latch.

. No. 243,161. Patented June zmssu.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN W. ROSS, OF SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA.

LATCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 243,161, dated June 21, 1881. Application filed May 1t), 1881. (ModeL) To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, JOHN W. Ross, of Santa Clara, in the county of Santa Clara and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Latches; and I do hereby declare that the following is-a full, clear,

' and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to the class of latches used upon the left-hand doors of book-cases, cupboards, wardrobes, and such like doors; and it consists of a latch having an automatic hook-catch and a lever-arm provided with a thumb-piece at the front of the latch, for unfastening it without reaching behind the door, the latch and keeper being so constructed that when the latch is fastened it will be securely held in place by the right-hand door when closed and locked, preventing the possibility of the latch becoming unfastened in handling and moving the case to which it may be attached, as hereinafter described and as shown in the drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a view of the upper side of the latch, showing its internal construction. Fig. 2 is a sectional view, showing the latch attached and held in place by the right-hand door of the case to which the latch is applied. Fig. 3 is a perspective of the latch detached. Fig. 4 is a perspective showing my improved latch applied to a book-case. Fig. 5 is a perspective showing a portion of the left-hand door having attached thereto a keeper provided with a lock-bolt slot above the catchopening.

A is a hook-catch, having a lever-arm, B, provided with a thumb-piece, 0, arranged with its face to the front of the latch, as shown in the drawings, for the purpose of allowing the latch to be unfastened readily without reaching-behind the door. The latch is pivoted at 1) upon a pin on the inner face of the plate of the case D, as shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings. A spiral spring, 0, is adjusted on a lug, (I, in the case and arranged to bear against the catch A, to spring it in and hold it to its place in the keeper.

E is the keeper attached to the left-hand door F, and is provided with the usual opening and recess to receive the catch flush with the face of the keeper and the edge of the door, so as to be securely held in place by the righthand door Gr when closed, as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings. The keeper is provided, also, with a slot, 6, to receive the lock-bolt of the door G. The entire latch is constructed so that it may be let in flush with the face of the shelf or partition to which it may be attached, where it will be out of the way and will occupy no useful space. When the left-hand door is closed the catch automatically springs into its place in the recess or opening in the keeper so as to be flush with the edge of the door when the latch is applied to a horizontal shelf, or to be flush with or slightly below the bottom of the lock-bolt slot when the latch is applied to-a vertical partition, so that in the one application the latch may be securely held in place by the edge of the right-hand door when closed, and in the other application the latch will be held by the lock-bolt of the righthand door when locked, rendering it impossible in either case for the latch to become n11- fastened in handling or moving the case; but when the right-hand door is opened the latch is readily unfas'tenedby pressure upon the thumb-piece, which, being at the front of the latch, is always readily accessible without reachin g behind the door, as is required with the ordinary fastenings for this purpose.

The improved latch may be applied to a vertical partition of a wardrobe or other article of furniture as well as to a horizontal shelf, as shown, in which case the latch is fastened to the vertical bearin g with the hook side of the catch downward, the thumb-piece being above the catch, and the keeper must be slightly changed in its construction to adapt it to this position of the latch, and the slot 6 may be above the catch-opening f, as shown in Fig. 5 of the drawings, so that the lock-bolt of the other door, when closed and locked, will III structed and arranged at the frontof the latch, my own invention I affix my signature in to fasten the left-hand door and to be held in presence of two witnesses. place when fastened and having a thumbpiece, 0, adjusted in front of the right-hand JOHN ROSS 5 door to release the catch, substantially as and Witnesses:

for the purposes described. FRANK M. GREEN,

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as HUGH L. GREEN. 

